Love
Sonnet XXVII (In Death): He Comforts Himself with the Hope That She Hears Him
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Death
My thoughts in fair alliance and array
Hold converse on the theme which most endears:
Pity approaches and repents delay:
E'en now she speaks of us, or hopes, or fears.
Since the last day, the terrible hour when Fate
This present life of her fair being reft,
From heaven she sees, and hears, and feels our state:
No other hope than this to me is left.
O fairest miracle! most fortunate mind!
O unexampled beauty, stately, rare!
Whence lent too late, too soon, alas! rejoin'd.
Hers is the crown and palm of good deeds there,
Who to the world so eminent and clear
Made her great virtue and my passion here.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXVII (In Death): He Comforts Himself with the Hope That She Hears Him.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/294/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XXVII (In Death): He Comforts Himself with the Hope That She Hears Him.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/294/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XLVII (In Life): He Blesses All the Circumstances of His Passion
- Sonnet CIV (In Life): Love's Inconsistency
- Canzone XX (In Life): He Cannot Live Without Seeing Her, but Would Not Die That He May Still Love Her
- Sonnet XII (In Death): Vaucluse
- Canzone VII (In Death): Love, Summoned by the Poet to the Tribunal of Reason, Passes a Splendid Eulogium on Laura